Should a railway coach simply rust away after its life on the tracks comes to an end? That must have been a question asked by the authorities at the National Rail Museum in Chanakyapuri. The negative answer to that is the museum’s new "administrative block". Instead of the regular grey concrete structure, the office block consists of two brightly painted, dark red train compartments. The yellow sign in front of it mimics a railway station platform board, down to the ubiquitous information on the altitude: 208.75 metres above mean sea level.
After 25 years of running, these coaches of Northern Railways had been languishing in the open at the museum but have now been repurposed for longer service. Amit Saurastri, director of National Rail Museum, who implemented the brainwave of former Railway Board chairman Ashwani Lohani, explained, "Our staff worked from scattered rooms on our huge complex, making it difficult to connect and communicate. Now everybody sits together at our new railway ‘station’."
The process of fitting out of one the coaches as the office of the director office along with a visitor’s room and work space for the staff has been completed. The work on the other coach and the make-believe platform will be finished by the first week of September.
As the office structure came into being with new flooring, partitioning, installation of electricals and appropriate furnishing, Saurastri couldn’t be happier about "the distinctive idea of using scrapped railway coaches for offices". But the idea was more than just to make an impression. The project cost much lower than if a new office complex had been built brick by brick.
After 25 years of running, these coaches of Northern Railways had been languishing in the open at the museum but have now been repurposed for longer service. Amit Saurastri, director of National Rail Museum, who implemented the brainwave of former Railway Board chairman Ashwani Lohani, explained, "Our staff worked from scattered rooms on our huge complex, making it difficult to connect and communicate. Now everybody sits together at our new railway ‘station’."
The process of fitting out of one the coaches as the office of the director office along with a visitor’s room and work space for the staff has been completed. The work on the other coach and the make-believe platform will be finished by the first week of September.
As the office structure came into being with new flooring, partitioning, installation of electricals and appropriate furnishing, Saurastri couldn’t be happier about "the distinctive idea of using scrapped railway coaches for offices". But the idea was more than just to make an impression. The project cost much lower than if a new office complex had been built brick by brick.
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